00:00As the Ringgit becomes the best performing currency in the world,
00:03an extraordinary feat after hitting its lowest rate just four months ago,
00:07Malaysians are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
00:11Economy Minister Rafi Ziramli has expressed hope that Malaysia will become a high-income nation
00:16by 2027 should the Ringgit continue to strengthen. With the national education system receiving the
00:22largest budget allocation last year, Malaysia appears ready to break barriers in all key
00:26sectors – economy, education, and governance. But there is one more sector the federal
00:33government should consider spending on to elevate the nation's emerging
00:36upper-middle-income economy – research and development.
00:46It is often overlooked and underappreciated, as its results are difficult to quantify
00:50and usually only seen and felt years later. But developed countries that have made a point
00:55to invest in R&D have only seen their competitiveness boosted.
01:00For example, South Korea, which once lagged behind Malaysia in GDP per capita,
01:05climbed eight spots to 20th in IMD's world competitiveness ranking this year,
01:10while we dropped seven spots to 34th. With a GDP of around 4.3 times that of Malaysia,
01:16South Korea is now ranked first in the world for R&D spending, allocating about 4.9% of its GDP to
01:22the field compared to Malaysia's 0.95%. In simpler terms, South Korea spends,
01:30on average, a whopping 19.8 times more than Malaysia on R&D.
01:35And it's not just South Korea that is investing in high-value R&D.
01:38Other developed nations such as Japan, the U.S., and Switzerland are also doing the same.
01:44Funding for R&D typically comes from the government and private enterprises.
01:48Examples of prominent government-funded large projects include the National Aeronautics and
01:52Space Administration in the U.S. and the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.
01:58On the other hand, companies like Toyota, Samsung, and Amazon focus on research that
02:03drives commercial gains, aiming to push their businesses to new heights.
02:08It is long overdue for Malaysia to address this issue, and Science, Technology,
02:13and Innovation Minister Chang Lee Teng believes that mandating a minimum spending of 2% of GDP
02:19on R&D could be the solution.
02:22They put it in writing that the country must at least invest how many percent of their GDP into R&D.
02:30By having a fund size of $2 billion, every year we can easily come out with about $100 billion to do extra R&D.
02:41Danish Roger Reza, FMT News.
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